Princess Diana's best quotes: Her thoughts on life, love, her sons

Twenty years after Princess Diana's death, her words, like her legacy, have withstood the test of time.

Jocelyn McClurg, USA TODAY , TEGNA10:42 AM. CDT August 23, 2017

>Charles, Prince of Wales, and Diana, Princess of Wales, stand with Princess Margaret Rose April 16, 1985 at Windsor Castle, Berkshire, ready to receive President Banda of Malawi for his State visit.(Photo: Getty Images)

She was once called Shy Di, but Princess Diana found her voice, and then some. She could be cheeky, funny, self-deprecating, bold and even shocking in her candor. As an advocate for AIDs patients and later for those who lost limbs and lives to landmines, she drew worldwide attention to her causes. A new book, Diana: I’m Going to Be Me: The People’s Princess Revealed in Her Own Words by Phil Dampier (Barzipan Publishing), collects Diana’s most memorable quotes. Here is a sampling:

To her childhood nanny Mary Clarke: “My only ambition is to fall in love, get married and have lots of children.”

Upon their engagement in 1981, Charles and Diana were interviewed. Asked if they were in love, Diana said: “Of course.” Charles: “Whatever in love means.”

To James Hewitt, who became her lover: “As I was walking down the aisle of St. Paul’s on my father’s arm, I thought, ‘What on earth am I doing here?’ ”

To her healer, Simone Simmons, about her honeymoon aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia: “I was bored, it was like being stuck with an 80-year-old man.”

Photo dated 10 August 1997 shows Diana, Princess of Wales, posing for a photograph with some French SFOR soldiers at Sarajevo airport before her flight to London.
(Photo: STEFAN ROUSSEAU/AFP/Getty Images, 2012 AFP)

After son William’s birth in 1982 she wrote to a friend: “William has brought us such happiness and contentment and consequently I can’t wait for masses more.”

To James Hewitt in 1986: “The Queen is always surrounded by corgis so you get the feeling you are standing on a moving carpet.”

To her hairdresser Richard Dalton: “Charles must be wearing beer goggles to have an affair with Camilla.”

In a letter to James Hewitt: “HIV doesn’t make people dangerous to know, so you can shake their hands and give them a hug. Heaven knows they need it.”

To voice coach Peter Settelen in 1992: “I was always told by my family that I was the thick one. That I was stupid and my brother was the clever one. And I was always so conscious of that. I used to go to the headmistress crying, saying I wish I wasn't so stupid.”

Said to a group of women in 1993: “The kindness and the affection from the public have carried me through some of the most difficult periods and always your love and affection have eased the journey.”

To Martin Bashir in the famous Panorama interview in 1995, referring to Camilla Parker-Bowles: “Well, there were three of us in the marriage, so it was a bit crowded.”

To Martin Bashir: “I always knew I’d never be the next queen. I’d like to be a queen of people’s hearts.”

In response to criticism for her work trying to ban landmines: “I am not a political figure, I am a humanitarian figure, always was, always will be.”